Women working longer and loving it. Apparantly.

Somehow I don’t think women are actually “embracing” working longer hours. I know of no women over about 30 who wouldn’t rather cut down on work or quit for a few years or altogether. They moan constantly about their workloads. Even the go-getting grrls in their early 20s often admit they hate the idea of having to work all their lives, and many seem to want to (and think they’re entitled to) retire in their 30s.

However, the marriage strike is taking care of things. More and more women who can’t find a sucker who’ll marry them have no choice but to work and support themselves and pay off their own damn credit cards. Plus women flooding the market diluted wages and made the economy adapt to two-income households. Hence those women who do find a sucker to marry often have to continue working anyway, often against their will.

Men may be working a bit less because of positive discrimination but also because fewer of us have wives to support, so we can take it easy. Most of us men aren’t really that materialistic, we only needed flash-cars and designer clothes to impress women. They’re not worth impressing, and marriage is too risky, so we’ll not be working 60+ hours a week anymore, thanks very much. I only work 37-hours a week, and I respond to requests to do overtime with laughter.

Of course, it’s not quite the case that women are shouldering the massive burden of workloads when you see the statistics:

In 1992, when records were first collected, 7.8 per cent of women were working at least 45 hours a week. That figure had risen in 2006 to 9.1 per cent, or one in 11.

In stark contrast the equivalent figure for men has gone down, from 33.4 per cent to 27.5 per cent.

So, out of every four people working more than 45+ hours a week, three are men. Not quite a case of us men bowing out like the lazy sods we’re implied to be, is it?

Still, these figures are significant. It’s a lot less men slaving like mad in offices and factories. Maybe it will balance out. Maybe, out of necessity more than anything, women will end up working longer hours than men on average and earning more than men on average. And on that day, us men will be denounced as lazy slackers for not pulling our weight, even though when we dominate the workforce we’re evil oppressive thugs for keeping women out of the work-place.

This commenter at the Daily Mail sums the double-standards up best:

When men work “too much” they are obsessed with work.

When women work “too much” they are high-powered.

When men work “too little” they are lazy losers.

When women work “too little” they are perfecting their work-life balance.

posted by Duncan Idaho @ 5:36 PM
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At 6:34 PM, Anonymous said…

In 1992, when records were first collected, 7.8 per cent of women were working at least 45 hours a week. That figure had risen in 2006 to 9.1 per cent, or one in 11.

Isn’t that just an increase of 1.3%, over 14 years? So surely if this apparantly fanatic rate continues, it’ll only take these workaholic women another, what 182 years to get near the current mens rate of 26% of working longer hours.

Wowzer! They’re just jumping at the opportunity of equality in work ethic.

This is from the linked article:

‘However, they were dictating when and where they worked them. Many of these hours were worked around taking their kids to school, going to the gym and other such activities.”

Going to the gym? Are you sure the boss knows about this one. Being given flexible hours so you can go to the gym ‘and other such activities’ whatever they might be. Anyway, shouldn’t these other activities be the sort one should be partaking in outside of working hours, isn’t that what the weekend is for?

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At 6:48 PM, Davout said…

Since women live a good 7-8 years longer than men, perhaps it’s just as well that they finance the retirement portfolios of their own gender.

We might even find that men’s health comes front and center in an effort to get them to live longer because more minions keep the nanny government from losing its petticoat.

Alternatively, we may see more erstwhile career women speak out against feminism, not because they care about men but because they want to transfer the yoke of wage slavery back onto the shoulders of men whilst becoming domestic divas.

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At 7:03 PM, Duncan Idaho said…

‘However, they were dictating when and where they worked them. Many of these hours were worked around taking their kids to school, going to the gym and other such activities.”

That annoyed me too, this idea that these women are “dictating” when they work to their employers, not the other way around, often just to piss about at the gym or lunch with their mates.

Many working women do not have much of a grasp of the idea of “working” at all.

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At 7:20 PM, Anonymous said…

I don’t like that part either about dictating work hours. Years ago I had a supervisor who gave afternoons off for women to:

I never realized how bad the “chivalry” was until my father passed away. I walked in on Monday morning and gave my boss the news. He said I couldn’t go to the funeral without requesting a leave of absence from the central office. In other words, I had to ask in advance (in writing) for time off for something very important. The women could just whine a little and he’d let them take half the day off with no request.

It’s like this in most offices. The workplaces that function best are either all male or all female. IBM Business Systems did a study on this in 1982. “All Male” staffs were 25% more productive.

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At 7:30 PM, Big Dummy said…

Super good comments on that article, Duncan my man. When I finally got stabilized after my divorce, I gave up on any overtime. Why bother. It would just increase the amount of child support I would pay. One day I might just hop on a box car and disappear and see the country. Not kidding. Wife turned the kids against me, I never see them, and she takes about half my pay, and she got the house. Why even fight it. Im quietly making plans to disappear from society and change my identity. It can be done.

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At 8:27 PM, Captain Zarmband said…

Well, I reckon it’s about time these lazy females got their fingers out and I’m glad that a few of them are working longer hours. Still, they’ve a long way to go yet. Did you know that 1 in 4 men work more than 60 hours a week? Only in the UK as this is illegal everywhere else in the EU (Blair opted out). Only 1 in 200 women work that many hours. So come on all you lazy females get to it. Of course you know what will happen next don’t you Duncan? That’s right, women will be moaning about the long hours they’re working even though they still work a fraction of the hours men work. All this male oppression of poor females…I can’t bare it. Me? I’ve downsized my business so that I don’t have to work so many hours. This is my choice because I don’t have a shopaholic wife to support.

Once again Duncan, altogether now. Don’t marry….don’t co-habit….take it easy.

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At 10:28 PM, VoodooJock said…

Hell, I loved working overtime. I even worked holidays at a couple jobs. Time and a half and double wages for working overtime and holidays = more money for things I like.

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At 10:34 PM, Anonymous said…

Here is where You really hit the point:

“Most of us men aren’t really that materialistic, we only needed flash-cars and designer clothes to impress women.”

Indeed, Ferraris, Guccis, and other
“posh” goods, while being nice, are certainly not worth their price. From the technical point of view they are actually quite inferior to their no-name equivalents you can buy outside Champs Elysée.

“They’re not worth impressing, and marriage is too risky, so we’ll not be working 60+ hours a week anymore, thanks very much. I only work 37-hours a week, and I respond to requests to do overtime with laughter.”

Indeed, us men can have a quite nice living doing 30 hrs/week if we do not spend on on designer goods, which we do not need. A materialistic woman (Is there any other kind?) on the other hand can empty the pocket of the richest man in the world in an day.

Yours,

Jeg

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At 11:34 PM, mfsob said…

I have GOT to stop reading your blog when I drink coffee … spewed all over the keyboard I laughed so damn hard at the complete, total asininity of these “empowered womyn.”

But only a woman would be willing to work herself to death just so she could buy more Prada handbags and Milano shoes …

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At 11:53 PM, HAWKEYE said…

Alternatively, we may see more erstwhile career women speak out against feminism, not because they care about men but because they want to transfer the yoke of wage slavery back onto the shoulders of men whilst becoming domestic divas.

spot on davout
this is exactly what they will do

do wymen understand that to work means, to make a profit for your employer??
nup

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At 12:48 AM, Anonymous said…

1) Of course it would be politically incorrect for employers not to give them time off for going to the Gym and shagging pedro the YogaLaties teacher. Afterall working mums take time to look after their sick kids! and we simply must be fair to women without kids as well.

2) Someone posted an article the other day about 51% of women in america living alone. To the young guys out there – THINK ABOUT THIS – Who is going to be paying those old age pensions? those health care plans? who is going to be financially supporting these women when the retire on mass in about 10 years????

YOU!

I n a few short years Not only will you be paying child support, mother support, but you’ll also be paying granny support.

Max

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At 1:11 AM, Anonymous said…

Hey Duncan

Your blog is having such a big impact that you are making the Republicans and Democrats in our country pissing their pants.

Now they have come out with a bill that will make criminals out of bloggers; check it out.

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At 12:24 PM, Anonymous said…

‘However, they were dictating when and where they worked them. Many of these hours were worked around taking their kids to school, going to the gym and other such activities.”

Not only does the government rule us by fear, now women can do it? The employer is probably scared shitless thinking she’ll scream sexual harassment, employer inequality towards gender, who knows what. I say let women do what they want and as long as I’m single and they don’t bother me I could care less, they’ll be in their own hole they dug soon and I won’t help them dig out either.

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At 2:39 PM, Anonymous said…

It’s not only about how many hours you work, but what you do while you’re working. There’s a lot of people who are ineffective workers — essentially costing the company to have them work there. Of course, this cuts across gender; anybody can be a crappy worker.

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At 4:07 PM, a french man said…

This reminds me when I was in my 20’s, studying at the university. The girls I knew where so much implied into finding a job, and after, to have a career. They were kind of job warriors. It impressed me quite much at this time. I was a little bit ashamed to not be as motivated as them by the idea of working so much.

For them, working 10 hours a day was normal. No problem for them. The fact of just showing that you were not so enthusiastic about that kind of way of life was sufficient to get quite scornful and disapproval looks.

But… But… But… as the years passed, the behaviour and the discourse began to change. Oh yes ! Suddenly, they stopped to work 10 hours a day to work just 8 hours a day.

What a grin I had when they recognised that. I thought by myself “So girls, where is your so incredible motivation ? So, it was all lies in fact. Well, ok.”

But, at that time, they were not too proud to recognize it.

Then, they began to say that it was normal to stop working more than 39 hours a week. They weren’t new young workers anymore. So, working until 8pm ? Are you mad ?

And finally, now that they are around 35, they all want to stop working. Working is so boring. Ahahaha !

I wish I could have known a blog like yours when I was young. I would have laugh already at this time, thinking “well, we will see your so great motivation to work ten years later”.

So as you say Duncan, they seem very motivated in their 20’s. But, when they arrive in their 30’s, all those beautiful speeches and behaviours about the wonderful world of work have long gone away.

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At 4:41 PM, Anonymous said…

Someone made a great point that if we went to a sales tax instead of an income tax then women will paying most of the taxes. That would be wonderful but now I finally realize why it will never happen and that is because governments know that it will be the women who will be paying and of course they can’t allow that to ever happen. I wish there was a country I could go to escape all the one sided laws.

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At 10:22 PM, Anonymous said…

Re: hxxp://tinyurl.com/3x7kwz

Yes, that the American political system wants to shoot down this kind of blog – make it illegal – is completely crazy. And we should be extremely concerned about it.

Basically, all we are doing on this blog is a kind of journalism and social commentary.

Is there a petition we can sign in opposition to this law? Some success can be achieved this way; RADAR caused the UN to change the wording of one of their anti-male “resolutions” because of petitions.

The main thing in refute of this Orwellian, 1984 political correctness is:

1. Under American law (Constitution Amendment #??) – we are expressing our freedom of speech. Free speech has been tested in the Courts in a number of occasions in the US and it is a right that Americans clearly want to defend. Else, you will be slipping into Orwellian speech/thought control.

2. We are not anti-women. We are expressing the male point of view – we are pro-men. So basically, US Government are making it illegal to express opinions which are pro-men???? By that token, being pro-female should be illegal, ergo feminism should be made illegal???

Every one of us should monitor the situation with this law extremely closely.

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At 11:41 PM, unpleasant bitter git said…

Max 12:48 AM said… “2) Someone posted an article the other day about 51% of women in america living alone. To the young guys out there – THINK ABOUT THIS – Who is going to be paying those old age pensions?”

This is just “one” of the reasons why Bush is allowing illegal Mexican immigrants to flood into America and Blair to allow eastern European illegal immigrants to flood into Britain.

Short term economic growth.

Incidentally, has anyone noticed that the USA has a so-called “conservative” government and the UK has a so-called “socialist” government but the both of them still seem to act the same?

Both governments are trying to grab as much as they can in the shortest time possible as far as I can see.